Composite materials consisting of a substrate and diamond are known in the art. For instance, the German laid-open application DE 10 2004 052 068 A1 describes a cutting tool and a method for producing said tool, in which a coating made of diamond is applied to a substrate, which is metallic, for example. Also known in the prior art are micromechanical components which consist of a substrate, with the entire surface of said substrate being covered with a coating of diamond and/or of DLC. For instance, DE 10 2008 041 778 A1 describes a helical tension spring for a barrel of a clock mechanism, wherein this helical tension spring consists of a substrate, such as silicon, for example, and in that said substrate is clad over its entire surface with a coating of diamond and/or DLC.
With the micromechanical components known thus far in the prior art, in other words, also in the case of the helical tension spring according to DE 10 2008 041 778 A1, the substrate, which is embodied as rectangular in cross-section according to the above-cited laid-open application, has applied to it a diamond coating, which fully covers the entire surface of the substrate and which has the same thickness over all of its surfaces.
With the components described in the prior art, the superior physical properties of diamond, such as its extremely high hardness and good sliding friction properties, are particularly utilized.
The disadvantage of these known micromechanical components, however, is that the component cannot be optimally adapted to its specific application or load case, because in the case of the helical tension spring, for example, the forces acting on the helical tension spring are not constant over the entire length of the spring, and therefore, optimal gear behavior cannot thereby be achieved. The same is true of other components that are equipped with a diamond coating and are in contact with other components, because the forces in these cases act only at localized areas, e.g., at the contact points. This applies to escapements and escapement wheels, for example, but also to all gearworks and bearing components.
In light of the above, therefore, the problem addressed by the present subject matter is that of proposing micromechanical components which are embodied such that they can be optimally adapted to their specific intended use with respect to their required physical and mechanical properties, i.e., to their specific mechanical load case. At the same time, the micromechanical component should be cost-effectively producible. In the case of clock components, the component should also be lightweight (low mass or low moment of inertia) and any complex geometric shape should be possible.